(CNN) -- Ne-Yo is standing center stage in Nagoya, speaking a few halting phrases of Japanese to a packed arena. The crowd cheers.
"Some
of my pronunciations are not exactly up to par," the 31-year-old
R&B star admits after returning to his home in Atlanta. "But I'm
doing my best, you know. They take it upon themselves to learn the
lyrics to my songs, which is incredible to me, since many do not speak
the language. So the least I could do is learn a couple of phrases here
and there."
Just a week after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and
tsunami left parts of northern Japan a disaster zone, Ne-Yo embarked on a
three-city tour of the Land of the Rising Sun.
"Never in my mind
was there ever the thought of not going," he says. "I was actually more
anxious to go, because in times of great turmoil like that, you need
something to make you smile. You need something to take your mind off of
what's going on -- even if for a little while. I just wanted to see
what was going to be the safest way to get us over there."
Ne-Yo
headlined concerts in Nagoya, Kobe and Yokohama. A fourth stop in Tokyo
had to be postponed. At a scant 150 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant, it was deemed a little too close for comfort for
the production crew.
"That was the one show where they said due to the radiation, it was just not feasible for us to go in," Ne-Yo says.
At
each venue on his "Spread Love Through Music" tour, fans generously
filled donation jars earmarked for relief efforts and snapped up black
bracelets that read, "Our prayers are with Japan."
"So far, we've
raised upward of $10,000 in each city that we've gone to. I think we'll
do about ($60,000)," he says. "It's one thing to come over here and
sing a song and dance and all of that. But it's another to give them
something they can use.
" 'Spread Love Through Music' -- that's what I'm going to do."
The
singer recently spoke with CNN about his tour in Japan, why talent
doesn't count for as much as it used to in the music business and what
it's like to be a new father.
CNN: When you first traveled
to Japan, it was during a period where people didn't really know how
bad the nuclear fallout was going to be.
Ne-Yo: Well, of
course, we wanted to get the absolute facts on what was safe and what
wasn't. You don't purposely and knowingly walk into a situation where
you could potentially be in some serious danger. The main thing we
wanted to get done was see if the areas we had planned to go to had been
affected, and what was realistic as far as going. The Japanese people
have been some of my most dedicated fans, so what kind of artist would I
be to not go over there and give some of that appreciation back --
especially in their time of need.
CNN: But there were a few crew members who were worried about potential radiation and didn't want to tour Japan.
Ne-Yo:
There are some news channels who just want to make it sound as terrible
as they possibly can. But as far as the people that decided not to come
-- you know, I can't make a person do anything that they don't want to
do.
However, I came from a school where the show must go on,
given any situation. You can't pick which shows you're going to do and
not going to do. That's not something that's allowed, you know. You
can't work any other job and decide, "OK, I'm not going to go to work
today." You can't do that and keep your job.
I don't fault
anybody for how they felt about going or not going. It was what it was.
We went over there, the shows went off without a hitch, and nobody came
back with any sickness, or any newfound limbs or anything weird like
that. Nothing happened. Everybody was perfectly fine.
CNN: How did you learn the Japanese phrases?
Ne-Yo:
We had a translator. I would just ask them, "How do I say this? How do I
say that? I want to address the people like this -- what do I say?" And
they would tell me. It's not an easy language to learn, I will say
that.
CNN: Where are you headed next?
Ne-Yo:
I've been home for about a day and a half. It's good to come home and
spend some time with my daughter. She's about 5 months now, and she's
getting louder by the day, and that's a beautiful thing.
CNN: You're working on a new album. When's that coming out?
Ne-Yo:
Probably going to shoot for around September. Be looking for a single
probably around June or so. As of right now, the album is currently
untitled. I don't know what to call it yet.
CNN: We hear you might be working with Willow Smith.
Ne-Yo:
We've definitely been talking about doing stuff. I think she's
ridiculously talented, especially for her age. (The daughter of Will
Smith and Jada Pinkett is 10.) There's just good genes in that family, I
guess. Everybody over there is talented.
CNN: What if your daughter grows up and wants to become a singer?
Ne-Yo:
Well, it's not something that I would ever try to force her into, but
I'm going to make sure that she does it the right way. There's
definitely a wrong and right way to get into this business, to exist as
an artist.
CNN: Has it been hard or pretty easy to break into the business for you?
Ne-Yo: It was definitely hard, and it's harder now.
Talent
is rarely the first thing looked for nowadays. At one point, talent
was, at the very least, 70 percent of what was needed to do this job,
and I feel like it's been bumped down to somewhere in the low 20s and
30s.
Now, it's like, "I need you to be as controversial as
humanly possible. Look good with your shirt off, look good with a short
skirt and just do things to make people pay attention, and I don't care
what it is." I don't understand that route.
CNN: You have a pretty positive image.
Ne-Yo:
I don't necessarily feel like my image is so much squeaky-clean, as it
is just real. Before I became a celebrity, I wasn't a knucklehead. I
wasn't a troublemaker. Why would I start doing that now, just because
people are paying attention? I've never been that guy to begin with.
I've always been a somewhat easygoing guy who thought before he acted
for the most part.
I mean, nobody's perfect, but I think at the
end of the day, I'm not about to set myself on fire and jump off a
building so that people will pay attention. Honestly, if my talent is
not enough to get your attention, then maybe you should go and pay
attention to somebody else.
When the pendulum
swings back toward actual talent, I'll be sitting right here. And in the
meantime, I'm a just do what I do. Other than that, I'm at the house
eating chips, watching TV and developing a gut. Yeah, that's what I'm
doing.
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